Twitter & Opendorse Expand Their Partnership To Allow Pac-12 Football Players To Earn Money For Sharing Their Game Highlights
Twitter and athlete marketing platform, Opendorse, are expanding their partnership to empower student-athletes to monetize their personal game highlights for the first time through a new Twitter Highlights program.
How It Works
Powered by technology and media company Tempus Ex Machina, participating Pac-12 football players will receive a custom video of their game highlights after every game, including different angles of their best plays. They then share their highlights from their Twitter account, run pre-roll ads through Twitter Amplify and receive a portion of the ad revenue.
The program is currently limited to just Pac-12 football players but will soon be expanded to men’s and women’s basketball and other sports.
A Growing List Of Monetization Opportunities
The program comes just a month after the NIL era celebrated its first anniversary. Since legislation passed, student-athletes have monetized their influence on and off the field, from branded content deals to appearances to ownership of companies. Now, student-athletes add to that growing list of monetization opportunities by being able to be compensated for game highlights.
Why It Matters
Besides being a first of its kind, there are several reasons why this is notable. First, it enables football players across different profiles and positions to take advantage of their NIL. Every player has the opportunity to make money through their work on the field without having to be a high-profile or key position player.
Furthermore, unlike branded content or appearances, athletes aren't required to create new content or add something else to their schedule to make money. Instead, they can simply leverage Opendorse and Twitter to their ad-enabled game highlights. That’s a much lighter lift than shooting content or making an in-person appearance. Because athletes have busy schedules, time often prevents them from maximizing their NIL.
Lastly, it's just another example of a platform supporting ad-based, revenue-sharing monetization. Several platforms, including Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat, have recently launched or expanded revenue-sharing experiences.
What It Means
More creative ways for student-athletes to monetize will emerge as the NIL landscape matures. While many will look toward the traditional influencer marketing industry as inspiration for expanding monetization options, the traditional influencer marketing industry can learn much from NIL's innovation. Many athletes, brands, and platforms are still experimenting with how they partner. They are looking beyond the standard branded content deals because NIL is still very new, and the playbooks are being developed in real time.
